Four days before the start of the Paralympics, the llama The torch was lit on Saturday under incessant rain in the English town of Stoke Mandeville, where the idea for these competitions arose after the Second World War.
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“We are in the grip of this capricious weather,” joked Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris Organising Committee, nearly a month after the opening ceremony of the Games, which also took place in a downpour.
The flame was lit by two Paralympic athletes British, Helen Raynsford y Gregor Ewan.
“It’s such an honour,” said Helene Raynsford, the first Paralympic rowing champion when the sport debuted at Beijing 2008. “This is the birthplace of the Paralympics.”
The history of the Paralympics dates back to 1948, when German neurologist Ludwig Guttmann organised sporting events for war veterans who were paraplegic or wheelchair-bound at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in north-west London.
The event was organized to coincide with the 1948 London Olympics.
The Paralympic movement was born from this initiative. The first Games as such were organised in Rome in 1960, with 400 athletes from 23 countries.
Ludwig Guttman “created a sporting and social movement that today has a profound impact on the entire world, and that advances the lives of millions of people with a disability,” he said. Andrew ParsonsPresident of the International Paralympic Committee.
The flame was lit in a stadium not far from the hospital where Ludwig Guttman worked.
It is the first time since 2012 and the London Games that the Paralympic flame has been lit in Stoke Mandeville.
“We had in mind to come here for the lighting of the flame,” said Estanguet, celebrating a “beautiful and powerful history.”
Andrew Parsons was the first bearer of the flame, which will pass through the Channel Tunnel on Sunday.
Twenty-four British relievers will proceed on a journey through the tunnel to pass the fire to the Frenchwhich will have another twenty-four relievers to reach Calais, in northern France.
The flames will then be divided to travel to different parts of France. Twelve torches will circulate between Sunday and Wednesday, until they are joined together in Paris to light the cauldron, the iconic hot-air balloon of the Paris Games, which will once again be located in the Tuileries Garden.
The llama The main route will run from Calais to the Paris region, via Arras, Amiens, Louviers and Chambly.
There will be a thousand bearers on the global route, through about fifty cities.
The Paralympics will be the first ever to be held in France. They will begin with the opening ceremony on Wednesday 28 August on the Champs-Élysées and Place de la Concorde, in an event designed by artistic director Thomas Jolly, who was also in charge of the ceremonies at the recent Paris Games.
“We are looking forward to being there,” Estanguet said. “Everything is in place to make these Games a very nice celebration,” he added. “We have maintained the same ambition, the same ingredients: iconic venues, the desire to create an atmosphere in the stadiums, etc.”
“There will be that extra soul around the issue of disability,” added Tony Estanguet, who hopes that the Games will “make us evolve towards a more inclusive society.”
Some 2.5 million tickets for the Paralympics have been put on sale. About 1.8 million have already been purchased, according to Tony Estanguet.
“We should exceed our target, with two million tickets sold before the start of the Games,” he said.
Tickets for a dozen sports events have already been sold out.
Some 4,400 athletes will compete in 549 events, which will take place in 18 venues, 16 of which have already been used for the Paris Games (including the Grand Palais, the Palace of Versailles and the Stade de France).
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